Utah Education Network and University of Utah Select Ciena for Metro Optical Network

HANOVER, Md. – Ciena Corporation, the network specialist, today announced that the Utah Education Network (UEN) and the University of Utah have deployed Ciena’s 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, equipped with WaveLogicCoherent Optical Processors, to provide high-speed, high-capacity 100G connectivity between the University and its new downtown Salt Lake City data center, and to UEN member organizations. The new Ciena-powered metro optical network will also support the University’s diverse research portfolio, which requires robust scientific computing and visualization capabilities in the areas of biomedicine, genomics, geophysics, combustion, molecular dynamics, fluid dynamics and climate modeling.

Key Facts:

The University of Utah’s new metro optical network will connect the University to its Salt Lake City data center at speeds that will scale from 10Gb/s to 100Gb/s and beyond. This will allow the university to meet the advanced connectivity requirements of both research and general data traffic of the University, as well as UEN-connected institutions, on a converged network. In addition, extensions of the network to Provo and Logan are underway, enabling the network to serve Brigham Young University and Utah State University, as well.

Ciena’s technology will also provide high-performance optical transport to support UEN, which operates a statewide backbone for K-12 educational schools, Head Start organizations, higher education institutions and public libraries. UEN facilitates interactive video and web conferencing, provides instructional support services, and operates a public television station (KUEN ) on behalf of the Utah State Board of Regents. UEN also serves as the commercial Internet and provides connectivity between Internet2 and the state government and the Utah Telehealth Network, which connects health care providers across the state.

UEN is an affiliate member of the U.S. Unified Community Anchor Network (U.S. UCAN ) project that delivers network connectivity to more than 65,000 member organizations for the delivery of telemedicine, distance learning and other life-changing applications to communities across the United States.

Through a combination of grants from the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR ) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP ), the University of Utah and UEN combined will serve 1,084 K-12 schools, 10 colleges and universities and approximately 866,000 Utah students and educators.